Naomi Watts as Valerie Plame and Sean Penn as Josepj Wilson in Fair Game.
A Washington Post editorial (12/3/10) on the film Fair Game complains that “the film’s reception illustrates a more troubling trend of political debates in Washington in which established facts are willfully ignored.” Talk about lack of self-awareness.
The film dramatizes the story of Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who blew the whistle on the Bush administration’s intelligence manipulation, and his spouse Valerie Plame Wilson, who was outed by the administration as a covert CIA officer in retaliation for her husband’s criticism. The Post editorialists have been grinding their axes on the Wilsons’ case for a long time now, and the film version gives them an opportunity to do so anew.
FAIR’s Peter Hart documented in Extra! (5–6/06) how Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt cherry-picked evidence to turn reality upside-down, making the Bush administration the victim of Joseph Wilson’s intelligence manipulation. I wrote another piece (Extra!, 9–10/06) on the Post editorial page’s efforts to dismiss the campaign to destroy Valerie Wilson’s career as nothing but “gossip.” (The Post‘s case rested on the idea that Richard Armitage, who first leaked Plame Wilson’s name, was an official of unquestionable integrity—this is a guy who once served as a character witness for a Vietnamese mobster.)
Fair Game is a devastating portrayal of an establishment media used as a weapon against dissidents—no wonder the Post didn’t enjoy watching it.
Update: Eli Stephens of Left I on the News writes in comments:
It’s interesting what passes for proof at the Post. The editorial asserts categorically: “The movie portrays Ms. Plame as having cultivated a group of Iraqi scientists and arranged for them to leave the country, and it suggests that once her cover was blown, the operation was aborted and the scientists were abandoned. This is simply false. In reality, as the Post‘s Walter Pincus and Richard Leiby reported, Ms. Plame did not work directly on the program, and it was not shut down because of her identification.”
But the article by Pincus and Leiby says no such thing. Here: “It’s true that Valerie Plame Wilson was working with one of the CIA’s teams trying to gather intelligence on Iraq WMD operations, but she evidently did not play the central role that the film puts her in. She was not directly part of the scientist program, according to agency officials.”
And, as to whether the program was shut down, Pincus and Leiby offer this “definitive” evidence: “Although the film suggests that the blowing of Valerie’s cover led directly to the shutdown of the Iraqi scientist exfiltration, an intelligence insider told us: ‘Something like this, if it was going on, wouldn’t have been canceled for this reason.'”
So, since Plame continues to maintain her responsibility to not talk about her role, we are to rely on unnamed “agency officials” using couched language “not ‘directly part’ of the scientist program” to conclude in no uncertain terms that this is “simply false,” and the opinion of one “insider” (not even an “agency official”) who offers his or her opinion on what would or wouldn’t have happened. “Simply false” my eye.
It’s interesting what passes for proof at the Post. The editorial asserts categorically: “The movie portrays Ms. Plame as having cultivated a group of Iraqi scientists and arranged for them to leave the country, and it suggests that once her cover was blown, the operation was aborted and the scientists were abandoned. This is simply false. In reality, as The Post’s Walter Pincus and Richard Leiby reported, Ms. Plame did not work directly on the program, and it was not shut down because of her identification.”
But the article by Pincus and Leiby says no such thing. Here: “It’s true that Valerie Plame Wilson was working with one of the CIA’s teams trying to gather intelligence on Iraq WMD operations, but she evidently did not play the central role that the film puts her in. She was not directly part of the scientist program, according to agency officials.”
And, as to whether the program was shut down, Pincus and Leiby offer this “definitive” evidence: “Although the film suggests that the blowing of Valerie’s cover led directly to the shutdown of the Iraqi scientist exfiltration, an intelligence insider told us: “Something like this, if it was going on, wouldn’t have been canceled for this reason.””
So, since Plame continues to maintain her responsibility to not talk about her role, we are to rely on unnamed “agency officials” using couched language “not ‘directly part’ of the scientist program” to conclude in no uncertain terms that this is “simply false,” and the opinion of one “insider” (not even an “agency official”) who offers his or her opinion on what “would or wouldn’t” have happened. “Simply false” my eye.
since the entire haitt op-ed section is by and for neo-cons, it’s no surpise that it will fight to the death against anything showing the run up to the irag invasion in an unflattering light….
Bush is a liar turned into a war criminal by the power he abused!
You “tag” the article as “Charlie Wilson”. Wrong war, wrong guy. It should be “Joseph Wilson”.
Bush conducted wars against criminal nation(s)and was abused by those who charged him with being a liar -by those same who were glad that evil America had got hers…some might say.
Observateur how about dennis Wilson.?Didnt he live in a sandbox head deep in the sand for a year/
@ Micheal…not Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, his brother Brian….
He had a sandbox 30 inches high placed in his music area in the middle of which he set his piano. His objective was to feel the sand at his feet while he composed and played music.
“Bush conducted wars against criminal nation(s)and was abused by those who charged him with being a liar -by those same who were glad that evil America had got hersâ┚¬Ã‚¦some might say.”
Name those “some”, please. From your skill at constructing straw men, I’d expect Ray Bolger to be one of the names.
Helen how could I have said Dennis?You are correct.But Brian was more than just a little disturbed during that period.Amazing troubled man.beach boys were my first concert at 14.I have enjoyed him live more than once.And even sat with his daughter at one show. Tortured genius.
Austin…I do believe that many on the left hoped for Bush to fail in Iraq for political gain over a man they hated.And I am talking legislators .The defeat ,retreat,and surrender crowd who worked to end victory in Iraq and who if listened to …..would of generated just that.